Sassafras’s Training Log – 2.2.14

I know I’ve been slacking in the training log department. But to be honest, Old Man Winter is really fouling up my plans. I’m still getting my workouts in (mostly), but I can’t just roll out the door and hit the street. I have to get up earlier to allow for drive time to and from the gym. And I’m getting more than my fair share of Justin Bieber news on those TVs at the gym. These are such first world problems, I know – but I don’t do well when my routine is out of whack.

Monday – Outside… yay! 7 miles at 9:22 pace. It was a little icy; not terrible, just dodgy in some spots. The real issue was the wind of 17 miles per hour! There wasn’t a whole lot of chatting going on with my friend. Instead we just improvised the route on the fly to avoid ice and wind.

Tuesday – Off. I switched things around to make today my off day due to the -15 degree forecast and an early meeting.

Wednesday – Hit the treadmill early for a tempo run. I did 8 miles total, with the middle 6 at tempo. I hit 8:07 pace for those, and my goal pace was 8:08. It was one of those days where I felt like I hit my stride all day thanks to starting it with a great run.

Thursday – 12 degrees outside, so it was treadmill time again. I did an easy 7 miles at 8:50 pace.

Friday –It was a balmy 34 degrees, so I ran outside today. It’s the little things, right? Some areas were still pretty icy, but it was a good 6 miler (9:16 pace). I ran from my house over to a friend’s, did the middle 3 miles with her and her dog, then ran home. It was a fun way to break up the run!

Saturday – My first 20 miler of this training cycle, and, man, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day for it. I ran it with a training buddy whose also running the Derby Festival Marathon and it was one of those great runs where we talked about everything under the sun but kept clicking off the miles at a relatively good pace. Despite having a hilly route, I averaged 8:54 pace. And it helped that we had company for the middle 8-9 miles. I made sure to go on a nice long dog walk later in the day to prevent soreness, and I also employed the other time-honored method for preventing soreness: eating froyo.